. >> the longer the white house slow walks this discussion, this economy gets to the fiscal cliff and the more american jobs are placed in recession. >> if something goes wrong, the fed has no arrows left in its quiver. >> we're checking our lists as the "squawk on the street" countdown to christmas continues. ho, ho, ho. ♪ >> andrew ross sorkin is bringing lloyd blankfein on stage. let's take a look. here's goldman sachs ceo lloyd blankfein. >> a number of people have touched on the fiscal cliff, and i wanted to start with that, but in a different way with you this morning, in that you have been active in washington over the past couple of weeks and all this. you've been on the phone with the white house. i've read reports that you were on the phone with the white house earlier this week. just if you could, take us behind the scenes. what goes on on these conference calls with the business community? sort of what do you see actually happening right now? >> i don't want to oversell this. i was on a couple of conference calls that the white house had with myself and other people who